The Illusory Play The True Story Of An Ordinary Person Who Was Identified As The Incarnation Of The Ganden Tripa1 Trichen Jangchub Chöpel The Autobiography of Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang Three secrets of all Conquerors in the space of vajra essence, Shining like the sun and moon, my Protector, that kind Lord, Who is endowed with the two sets of ten qualities,2 May the dust from your feet rest on my crown until the attainment of full enlightenment! Long in samsara, bound in chains Of innumerable strands of karma and delusion, The varied pictures that arise, clothed in every variety Of anything but happiness are quite frightening! Yet, like a flash of lightning in the black of night, This momentary glimpse of Dharma’s stainless path Received through the kindness of the holy beings, Has transformed samsaric rebirth into something meaningful! Still, the demons of clinging to permanence and true existence Fill the heart, making the mind wander constantly. Distracted to the monkey drama of this life’s concerns, I’ll tell this story, ultimate aims carried off by the wind! I am the ordinary person named Lozang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, who is supposed to be the tulku incarnation of the sixty-ninth throne holder of the Gelugpa, Yongtzin Trichen Jangchub Chöpel, and his incarnation, the eighty-fifth Ganden Tripa, Trichen Lozang Tsültrim Päldän. Yet since my own mind is not hidden from myself, I know that I have nowhere near the realizations to qualify as the incarnation of those holy beings! Still, because of strong previous karma, my fate has been to bear the title of their incarnations. As Je Gungtangpa has said, If a Tulku comes for the sake of living beings and the teachings, Their teaching and practice should leave some trace! When you see the life stories of previous great beings it blows your mind! If you listen to their stories, it causes faith to grow. It has the power to plant imprints for liberation in the minds of trainees. But in the case of someone like me, a mass of confusion and inflicted by the three poisons, one who recognizes nothing but the three occasions3, such benefits are as nonexistent as the fur on a turtle! Although I lack such qualities, since I am supposed to bear the name of a Lama, by studying, contemplating, and practicing so that my life would not be wasted, at least, there will have been some small trace of an impact that I could say I had, in terms of upholding and spreading the teachings. Left unexamined, that might seem to be the case, but if I check closely, my impact 1 Contrary to popular belief, the Ganden Tripa (and not the Dalai Lama) is the spiritual throne holder of the Gelugpa lineage. This rank is meritocratic – that is, a Ganden Tripa is elected, and they do not reincarnate into their position. 2 The two sets of ten qualifications of a Guru mentioned in the Fifty Verses of Guru Devotion, one for Sutra, one for Tantra, 3 Eating, sleeping and defecating 1 cannot stand up to scrutiny. With a nature like the colors of a rainbow, there is nothing to be singled out! Therefore, for me to write about the troubles of this life will be but an imitation of previous great masters, like a bat pretending to be an eagle! It could be somewhat embarrassing to the wise! Nevertheless, in 1964, in Tibet, in the year of the wood dragon, that leader of humans and gods, the Supreme Protector of Refuge Lord of Conquerors Kyabje Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo4 told me that I must write my life-story. I received this injunction respectfully on the crown of my head. After that, a number of faithful disciples such as Sera Jey Trehor Geshe Tamdrin Rabtän also strongly urged me to write it. Kazur Kungo Neshar Thubtän Tharpa also urged its composition with offerings of an image of Buddha and a khatak 5. In a letter from the nearby Jarmän region, Dragyab Hotogtu Rinpoche urged me to write it. In addition my long-time neighbor, Päldän, carefully kept a complete record of my situation, early, middle and late, through events that he saw for himself and comments that he overheard. The process of corroborating events with his records seemed to go on forever. A previous aristocrat of Kyishöd and Tagtse, Zhabdrung Dorje Namgyäl, ministers, Kalön Gazhiwa Doring Tänzin Päljor, Kalön Dokar Zhabdrung Tsering Wangyäl, and other officials and important figures have written books about their own stories so, by my estimation, there doesn’t seem to be any major reason not to give a straightforward account of my own situation. Produced by ignorance and white and black karma, happiness and suffering arise in turn throughout the four seasons, and though I have spent my whole life in the guise of a Dharma practitioner, I have wasted the freedom and opportunity of a precious human life. From qualified Spiritual Masters who were like actual Buddhas, I have received the vast and profound teachings of Sutra and Tantra and, not leaving them as something merely heard about, I have practiced incorporating them into my own being; yet there is not the slightest point about which I can say with confidence that I understand it completely. As the supreme conqueror Kelzang Gyatso, the seventh Dalai Lama, said, Lacking realized qualities from mixing Dharma with the mind, Yet pretending to help others by showing them the path to liberation, Simply exhausts oneself and others It is sad, the way we enslave ourselves! Accordingly, like a tape recorder or a parrot repeating MANI mantras, my story will be of but slight benefit to beings. In short, as the Tibetan master Mipham Geleg said, Although we may feel we have a whole forest of peace in our hearts, If we rely upon a crooked walking-stick of impure ethical discipline, We are deceiving ourselves as well as others: Give the results of such unkind deeds to me! I will not pollute the story with the eight worldly dharmas6 or perpetuate the cycle of virtuous, non-virtuous and mixed karma just to amuse myself and deceive others by pretending certain things didn’t happen or that I did things which I did not. Rather, I shall tell the story of my wandering, naked and empty handed, without Dharma, in plain prose, just the bare facts without elaboration. 4 Trijang Rinpoche’s root guru was His Holiness Kyabje Pabongkha Dechen Nyingpo. Upon receiving 24 days of teachings on the Lamrim, based on Pabongkha Rinpoche’s explanations and commentaries, Trijang Rinpoche authored Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand 5 A white ceremonial silk scarf offered by Tibetans as a form of greeting and respect to our Gurus, elders or persons in authority 6 These are distractions that hinder or taint our spiritual practice: wanting material gain, avoiding material loss; wanting praise, avoiding blame; wanting to be accepted, avoiding rejection; wanting to be comfortable, avoiding discomfort. 2 The land of my birth, Tibet, is a land that is under the subduing guidance of the Supreme Arya Avalokiteswara7, Holder of the Lotus. I was born in one of its three regions, the central Dharma land of Ü Tsang, in the central of its four districts, called Kyishö Tsäl, Gungtang. A Lama named Shang Yudragpa, Protector of Beings, a path-blazer of the Kagyu teachings, was born there and the monastery that he founded there became a huge training center. Before Protector Manjusri Tsongkhapa8 founded the monastic universities of the Gelug, Shang Yudragpa’s training center was one of the six great Dharma communities of central Tibet. Called Tsäl Gungtang, it was referred to in the phrase, ‘ Sang De Gung Sum, Ga Kyor Zul Sum. ’ At the time when the Tsälpa throne-holder’s9 authority had reached its greatest extent, Tsäl included the central region and two colleges known as ‘branch monasteries.’ Tsäl Gungtang had three colleges: Chötri, Zimkang Shar, and Chökor Ling. Thus, spiritually and politically, it was a monastery of quite some importance. Later, however, the Tsälpa Tripön’s authority declined. During the year of the fire hare in the ninth sixty-year cycle, 1507 by the western calendar, Gungtang went up in flames. Lost were some very blessed and deeply symbolic objects, the entire central temple, the great Buddha statue, the image of Zhang Rinpoche, the ‘ Tashi Ö Bar’ relics, the statue of Four-armed Mahakala, and more. With just the two smaller colleges of Chötri and Zimkang Shar, the monastery declined greatly in spiritual and temporal authority. During the time of the great Fifth Dalai Lama, Zurchen Chöying Rangdröl held the throne. After that, when the fiftieth Ganden Tripa, the Renunciate of Amdo, Gedün Püntsog, plated the silver reliquary stupa of Je Tsongkhapa with gold, King Lhazang awarded him with authority over the Gungtang Temple and its images, the two branch colleges, the offerings, and the entire land, houses, people and wealth. Because of this he became known as ‘Trichen Gungtangpa.’ In his successive incarnations such as Lord Tänpay Drönmay, he was still referred to as Gungtang Tsang, and his name became fully renowned. When some of Trichen Gungtangpa’s successive incarnations however, began to reside primarily at Amdo Tashikyil Labrang, he could not administer Gungtang Temple due to the extended distance, and the government took it back. Later, when the Seventh Dalai Lama Kelsang Gyatso was young, Gungtang pa’s incarnation was the Dalai Lama’s uncle, Ngagrampa Samten Gyatso, who served as both his loving personal attendant and reading master. In another lifetime, as the learned Mongolian Darhen abbot Gelong Kelsang of ‘Tsa’ ancestry, he was so revered as to be awarded the Gungtang Temple and all of its sacred objects in perpetuity.